Watson's Vacation
by Paige M. Carter
Summary: When Watson goes on vacation, Lestrade and company must deal with Sherlock on his own. Female!Watson, hints of possible Sherlock/Watson.


Disclaimer: I do not own Sherlock or any character associated with it. I'm just having some fun, don't sue me.

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Detective Inspector Lestrade was a man accustomed to having to deliver bad news to people. It came with the job, but he knew that delivering this news was going to be one of the hardest things he'd ever done.

He walked into the bullpen and signaled for his detectives to gather around.

"Guys, I have a small announcement to make. I was speaking to Doctor Watson today and she informed me that she will be going on holiday with her sister starting next week and so, if we have to ask for help from Mr. Holmes, we will have to deal with him on his own."

There a moment of horrified silence before anyone spoke.

"Well…that doesn't sound catastrophic," Sally said, clearly trying to find the silver lining. "We can deal with Holmes for a week or so."

Lestrade shook his head, "Actually, she'll be gone for three weeks."

There was an audible gasp from the detectives and officers.

"Three WEEKS?!" Anderson croaked eyes wide. "Where the hell is she going that she's going to be gone for three weeks?"

Lestrade shrugged, "Apparently, Doctor Watson's sister won the jackpot in a local lottery and is spending it on a trip to South Africa, just the two of them."

There was another moment of silence before Sally spoke again, "And you couldn't convince her to take Holmes with her?"

Lestrade sighed, "No. Apparently this is going to be a 'sisters only' holiday." He didn't want to admit to asking the same thing.

********Flashback**********

_Jenny Watson's eyes widened with surprise when she opened the door and found Lestrade on the other side. "Lestrade! I assume you're here for your evidence, but why aren't you kicking in the door like usual?" She hated it when Lestrade and the Metropolitan Police would barge in and cause a big scene just so Lestrade could get back his evidence when Sherlock helped him._

_Lestrade smiled, "Not this time. The brass has been getting a lot of complaints about it and it's hard to justify executing a drug bust at the same location and continually coming up empty."_

_Jenny smiled and opened the door the rest of the way. "Come in. I'll get the evidence for you."_

"_Where's Holmes?" Lestrade asked, not seeing any sign of the detective._

"_He's in Kent, helping a friend of Mrs. Hudson's. Apparently, the friend's granddaughter is involved with someone Grandma disapproves of and she's asked Sherlock to try and dig up some dirt on the boyfriend."_

_Lestrade frowned, "Why didn't she just run a background check?"_

_Jenny rolled her eyes, "She did, his record is clean, but Grandma isn't convinced. Personally, I think it's because the boyfriend comes from lower middle-class and Grandma doesn't think he's good enough to be in her old money family."_

_Lestrade's eyebrows rose, "I can't believe Holmes would take a case like that. Sounds dead dull to me."_

_Jenny smiled, "He took it because Mrs. Hudson asked him and he couldn't bring himself to tell her 'no'. It's a fairly straightforward case, so he didn't need me to come along."_

_As she led Lestrade to where Holmes had stashed his case notes and explaining what they'd had found, she remembered, "Lestrade, I thought I should warn you that, starting next week, I'll be going on holiday with my sister, so you'll be dealing with Sherlock on his own." _

_Lestrade smiled, "That's great, Jenny! You definitely deserve a vacation. Don't worry about Holmes, we can handle him while you're gone, you'll only be gone a week, right?"_

_Jenny shook her head with a smile, "More like three weeks." At Lestrade's look, she continued, "Harry hit the jackpot in the local lottery and decided to spend a good chunk of it on a trip to South Africa, which is going to take three weeks."_

_Lestrade tried not to panic, "I don't want to sound rude, but is there any way you could…take Holmes with you?"_

_Jenny laughed, "You're actually the second person to ask me that today. I'm sorry, Lestrade, but Harry and I agreed that this would be sisters only, no lovers or flatmates allowed. Mycroft's promised to try and find him cases that he'll take; but, in case he can't, or there aren't enough to keep Sherlock busy until I get back, I thought I should give you fair warning."_

_Lestrade stood there, part of him wanted to beg Jenny to either find a way to take Holmes with her, or stay in London and he'd find a way to make it up to her. Maybe take up a collection with his team to pay for her to take another vacation with Holmes in tow. However, the gentleman in him won out. He knew about as well as anyone that Sherlock Holmes was not an easy man to deal with; and while he could avoid Holmes, Jenny had to live with him and, in the opinion of most of the Metropolitan Police Force, that pretty much qualified her for sainthood. She deserved to have some time away from Holmes and the madness and danger that seemed to follow him and he wouldn't ask her to put off her fun just because Holmes could be a real prick when he wanted to be._

"_Have fun, Jenny. We'll be fine," He'd forced himself to say before signaling to his guys that it was time to go._

_As soon as he was outside and the team had left, he called Mycroft Holmes. He hated asking the smarmy older Holmes for anything, but this time he was desperate._

"_I'm sorry, Detective Inspector," Mycroft said. "While I do actually have the means to send Doctor Watson on another vacation, provided that she takes my brother with her and have offered it to her, she insists on going with her sister, and considering what all she puts up with, I'm not willing to push the issue."_

******End of Flashback*******

Lestrade looked at his team, all of them looked like they'd just been given a death sentence. Swallowing his own sense of impending doom, he forced himself to smile.

"Come on, guys, we've dealt with Holmes without Dr. Watson longer than we've dealt with him with her around. We'll get through, and most likely we won't have to deal with him."

*******23 Days and Counting Later**********

Lestrade sighed as he walked into the Metropolitan Police Department. His mother had always told him that if he wanted to hear God laugh, to tell him his plans, and the last two weeks had proved that in more ways than one.

He'd fully made up his mind to not bring Holmes in on any case, no matter what happened, but then a serial killer hit the city, no discernible ties between the victims, except for the way they were killed: beaten nearly to death before being shot right between the eyes. The team had struggled with the case for nearly a week before he'd finally broke down and called Holmes in.

Holmes was his normal, impossible self, but now there was an edge to him that Lestrade had never seen before, or maybe the edge had always been there and he'd forgotten it since Jenny had started accompanying him on his cases, either way, the edge was there and everyone was feeling its sharpness. He'd actually brought Donovan close to tears one day and had Anderson ready to fight him another day. Even Molly was beginning to steer clear of him after he'd made a crack about her clothes.

As they watched Holmes examine the newest victim, Sally leaned over to Lestrade, "When is Doctor Watson coming back?"

Lestrade sighed, like everyone else, he'd kept track of how long Jenny had been on vacation and could repeat it down to the nearest second. "She should be back today or tomorrow."

Suddenly, the door to the morgue swung open and smacked Lestrade in the back. He spun around and came face to face with Jenny. She was dressed in her usual outfit of jeans, jumper and trainers, only her sun-streaked hair and deep tan gave any indication of her absence.

"Jenny!" Lestrade didn't bother to hide his excitement as he gave her a hug. "What're you doing here?"

Jenny stiffened for a second before returning the hug, "Hello, Lestrade. Mycroft told me that Sherlock was helping you on a case." At Lestrade's confused look, she continued, "I knew better than to expect Sherlock to remember to pick me up, so I called Mycroft and he told me what was going on and so, after I unpacked and changed clothes, I took a cab here." She looked around, "Where is my flatmate?"

Lestrade gestured to where Holmes was bent over the latest victim, seemingly oblivious to the conversation, that is until Jenny stepped up to him.

"Tell me what these are," Sherlock said, gesturing to some blotches on their victim, as if Jenny hadn't been gone for almost a month.

Lestrade was about to retort that Molly had already told him what the blotches were, but then he saw that Holmes' free hand was resting ever so slightly on Jenny's back. He smiled to himself, glad to be able to tell his crew that all was well again.


End file.
